Fiserv Poised to Buy Monitise in Multi-Million Pound Deal

June 15, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

A major move in the mobile payments market recently struck, as one of the original leaders of the mobile payments market in the United Kingdom was recently bought out. Fiserv landed said pioneer, Monitise, in a deal valued at around 70 million pounds sterling, or about $89.24 million US as of this writing.

Monitise, which was listed on the AIM exchange, reached its peak value back in 2014, when it was worth about two billion pounds, around $2.55 billion US. Monitise built said fortune on the back of the ability to link banks to mobile operators, which in turn opened up the ability to make purchases through mobile devices as well as engage in money transfers.

The good times didn’t last, though, as competitors from Apple to Google and beyond entered the market and proceeded to undermine Monitise’s markets at every turn. Monitise then put itself up for sale back in 2015, and buyers didn’t show up in any great number.

However, Fiserv stepped in, and even offered a bit extra: it arranged to buy the company at 2.9 pence—about four cents a share—which represented a premium over the standing share price of 2.3 pence per share, roughly three cents. Word from Monitise is that it considers the terms “fair and reasonable.”

When you’re paying any kind of premium, I suppose it’s really hard not to declare the deal itself “fair and reasonable.” After all, Fiserv could have just paid sticker price and called it a day effectively. Given that Monitise also posted a loss of 243.1 million pounds for the 2016 fiscal year, Monitise was probably eager to just stop the bleeding.

Fiserv, meanwhile, gets access to Monitise’s ground-breaking technology suite, which it will likely be able to readily incorporate into its own current operations. It wouldn’t be the first time a company was purchased for access to its technology, after all, and it’s a safe bet that Monitise had some noteworthy tech on its side as it worked to stem the tide of Apple, Google, and the rest of the competition.

It’s going to be exciting to see what Fiserv can do with Monitise’s technology assets, and to make up $89 million in purchase price, it better have something good up its sleeve.